Rebecca Fox finds out what attracts her to the English classics.
AS a woman, transforming yourself into a man takes more than the cliched deep voice, British actor Rebecca Vaughan says.
''It doesn't matter the gender, it's about building the character,'' she said.
Ms Vaughan plays 17 different characters in Dalloway, including shell shocked World War 1 soldier Septimus Smith.
''It breaks my heart.''
''That was easier. In this I'm telling the story of men as well as women. It's a pretty big challenge: the biggest challenge of my career and also the most rewarding.''
Ms Vaughan has been a stage actor for about 16 years with the odd piece of film or television work thrown in.
''My real passion is theatre. As an audience member I love sitting in a dark room listening to a story being told. I love being part of that. It is the story that keeps you going.''
She has been doing her own work - mostly solo shows - for the past five years after setting up Dyad Productions in 2009.
Dyad aimed to create one new piece of work each year and take it touring. It now had six shows on tour and Ms Vaughan was writing the seventh.
Her previous works, Austen's Women and I, Elizabeth were five star successes at the Edinburgh and Adelaide festivals in 2009 2010 and 2010 2011, with The Diaries of Adam and Eve, Female Gothic, and The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe garnering five star reviews at Edinburgh 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively.
Dalloway is an adaptation of the Virginia Woolfe novel Mrs Dalloway and follows Clarissa Dalloway through one day in June 1923 as she prepares for a party.
''It's a very beautiful novel. The first stream of consciousness novel.''
It also follows Mr Smith, and while the pair never meet, their lives have a massive effect on one another.
''It's a real honour to play it.''
Playing so many characters required a lot of thought and it took time to perfect them, she said.
''During rehearsal there comes a moment, you can feel it in your pelvis, how they hold themselves, in the way you create their words. It's really exciting, it happens suddenly; you're like, `Oh gosh'.''
She and writer and director Elton Townend Jones had wanted to adapt Mrs Dalloway for more than six years.
''I just love the novel. Virginia Woolf had the great ability to get to the heart of issues, there is an honesty and rebelliousness in her work.''
Her work was quite radical for its time, especially as some of her characters were quite unlikeable.
However, feedback from the audiences suggested people were touched by the characters, finding them quite relatable, she said.
''They have their own regrets, pain and laughter: it covers the whole gamut of emotions.''
The language of the novel was very beautiful.
''She was a poet in so many ways.''
Ms Vaughan's love of the work and other English classics was born out of her university education.
''I first read Virginia Woolf at university. I fell in love with her.''
It will be Ms Vaughan's first visit to Dunedin, a city she has heard a lot about from family and friends who have visited.
''I'm so excited. It's such a treat to see places you have never been before.''
To see
• Mrs Dalloway , Fortune Theatre Studio on Friday, May 8, at 4pm; May 9 at 3.30pm; and May 10 at 1pm.
